 We were just speaking in the studio about the potentiality and likelihood of Kenyan football stars representing us on an international platform regarding advertising, Kenyan tourism and representing our brands internationally. We are getting thrown led by Viktor Anyama, Michael Ingenio Lunga. I don't know, but be part of the program, join the conversation as well, talk to us what's your position regarding the same brand. Do we have what it takes to front a name that can advertise Kenya on a global map or probably with time we can have one? I think the conversation behind the scenes was interesting, it depends on what you want to sell, what are you marketing and is the person that you want to front for example as a brand ambassador for whatever you are doing suitable for that. You go into athletics and I look at somebody like Elliot Kipchogi, I think there's been Isuzu, he's now the brand ambassador for Isuzu, so it's relevant for that brand, it works well. When it comes to promoting our tourism here, perhaps they would look at somebody like Kwanyama who is out there consistently and help him or package him in a way that he can sell the country. And his name is allegorical too. But then again it depends on how you, like you said, education is also very important here. How do you package this person to be able to articulate whatever issues that you want him to address? So it could be issues of climate change for example, we are seeing more and more of these things, it could be something like wildlife conservation. So you need to be able to work with that individual to sell what it is that the country or the continent wants to sell. But at the same time want to go back and challenge Kenya and the continent. We are only always looking at players as brand ambassadors. How come we don't look and also look at the people who are managing the sport? Because more often than not you find that in football spaces these are people who have brought disrepute to the country and to the continent. Why can't we think about changing that? Because it doesn't matter how good Kwanyama does out there trying to sell the country and people come to the country and they find the football here is a mess. You don't have the credibility. Imagine if football in Kenya was thriving and we are filling stadiums every other weekend and still we have our Kwanyama and our Lungas out there marketing our country and our football. How powerful would that be? So we also need to look at ourselves, be it in the media, be it us who are trying to be entrepreneurial and managing the side of the game. We are all brand ambassadors. The event we have just organized, the inaugural Africa Football Business Summit, it got international coverage. If we had not done it well, what kind of image would that portray? It would have attracted global attention. Exactly. We had people from AS, Monaco, TST, Eastdale Low Business School, Parmas. These are all international brands that were represented in that room that I said a job well done. We will come back next year. So it's not just the players. Let's not focus too much on the players and give them a lot of pressure to sell something that is not sellable. Let's work on developing the industry here and changing the reputation that the game has in the country on the continent. Brian, you got overwhelming passion for football and you started this at a tender age. Unlike what we witnessed locally, people who got interest for football starting a club, an academy, which is out of day care. What drove you to venture into football entrepreneurship? One, we don't hear about sports entrepreneurship on the continent. It's something we don't address. Even though, like you said, people are setting up clubs and they're setting up academies. These are entrepreneurial ventures, but they don't think of themselves as such. So this is a gap you kind of realize. The other thing is that I came to the realization, having played the game very competitively both here and abroad. Yes, we have so much passion, we have so much talent, we spend a lot of time and energy in the sport, but just looking back, I started to wonder how come this sport is not creating opportunity for young people. You move around this city of Nairobi and you look at the average footballers. Let's not talk about those who are playing at the KPL, but the majority. Down there, you talk to the young people who are trying to make it. And you see a struggle, a struggle that needs to be addressed. And the only way we're going to address this is to bring entrepreneurship, to bring sanity in the management of the game in the continent. It's not about how many players we can try to push into the European market. For me, that's not a sustainable business model. How many players can you sell in a year? Maybe one or two, if you are very lucky, if you're running a top notch academy. And then you wait for how long before you sell another player. In the meantime, you're wasting thousands of talents going through your hands, but since they don't have opportunities to play abroad, then they will give up on their sport. And that results in other issues that maybe we need another forum to discuss. But that's really what drove me to set up the Football Foundation for Africa. How do we drive more resources into grassroots football so that we start to create a sustainable football ecosystem? So my passion actually now goes beyond just football. For me it's a passion for the youth of Africa. Because I feel we are disadvantaged and we have a great platform that we can use to empower ourselves and to empower communities. And for me that is football. A world football governing body thief, of course, suspended Kenya of government interference, sporting activities, but that will not probably the talk of our discussion this particular afternoon. But you know, World Cup is coming up in Qatar later this year starting next year. Starting next month until December and Africa is represented by Ebo Nations, led by the Black Stars of Ghana, Senegal, the defending champions for Afgan, Egypt are also there. What are our chances, continental chances? Because it's been at all orders defying all odds and probably getting to the semi-final stage. Is this time ours? Or we failed capitalizing on home soil in 2010? I think it will be difficult. You being realistic? I'm being realistic. Maybe quarter finals if we are lucky to have a team in the semi-final that I think it would be a job well done. But that's why I say we have not really tried to develop the game holistically. Just thinking of the talents. Look at a team like Senegal, world class stars. We are taking a team to the world cup that everybody is playing abroad. But do you know even one club from Senegal? Can you name a club from Senegal right now? Or a player playing in the Senegalese League? That's the challenge. And that's the truth by there. I can't remember naming a Senegalese club. So we haven't developed home? We haven't developed home. And the few who are making out, we push them to a pedestal. We try to say this is our only sign of success. You talk to people in Nigeria. They will tell you how badly their football is doing. Despite them having hundreds of players in different leagues in Europe. So it is really important that we start to focus on building sustainable which is one of the top class, strengthening our own leagues. Tanzania is trying their dream quite well and we can see they have even overtaken Kenya in terms of performance. But how many other countries have taken that approach to strengthen their own leagues, to strengthen their clubs so that they can even package their football to sell it not only on the continent but also outside. So that's the challenge for us. In terms of what chances are the world cup, again quarterfinal for me would be the realistic because when these players get to the world cup they have come from this club, this club. They don't have that pride to play in nation that for example they have to play for their clubs where their animal is more lucrative. More lucrative and we have all been directed towards you need to play pro for you to be considered a success. If you are playing locally then you haven't gotten to that place. I think Antoni Bafo mentioned during the summit the last player we celebrated that was playing in an African league was Abu Trika of Egypt. We have not had another one that we can celebrate globally and that's the challenge for Africa. By the virtue that you're coming from Kenya and you're starting it at home Maron, what are you doing to put Kenyan football to another level because I'm sure your priority revolves around the entire continent but coming from Kenya you must also be being a great patriot and doing something that will enable Kenyan to make strides as far as football development is concerned. For me first of all I have to say that I try as much as possible to package myself as African, as Pan-African but that doesn't defeat the fact that I come from Kenya and the Organization Football Foundation for Africa is domiciled here and I believe it can be a great asset for the country in terms of attracting people here, people who are already well versed in football development be it financial resources because what you realize again when you're in the industry there's so much interest in Africa people want to invest in African football but they don't have the right vehicles on the continent to help them and this is what the FFA provides. I've had conversations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Ministry of Sports and I tell them this is an asset that I believe could be useful to the country when you start talking about sports diplomacy now football is more and more used as a tool to demonstrate soft power and these are things that we can use to brand the country we had guests from over 30 countries here in Nairobi to attend the Africa Football Business Summit that is something the government can tap into not just for tourism but also for development because this is knowledge you see we had each day low on business school from Spain they have given scholarship worth over 70,000 euros and these I'm trying to tell the universities here that attended can you please get your students to take advantage of these kinds of offerings but I don't limit it to Kenya as I said for me it's about building Africa because I think we need to work together more if we work as Kenya alone it's going to be very difficult look at now the world cup is 48 teams it's a collective responsibility yes what are the chances of an African country being able to host a world cup with 48 teams almost nil so we need to work together for example South Africa can't? I don't think 48 teams very difficult the last time it did it was 32 right? 32 and out of those West African nations Nigeria we get to be told that they got a might infrastructure having widely travelled have you ascertained the same? not really I haven't been to Nigeria but when you talk to them they don't have North African nations North African Morocco is doing very well I think it's one of the countries we should emulate and it comes to football development government has made it one of their priorities to develop sports and I think they stand the best chance of hosting the next African world cup but that is something also that needs to be explored to see whether it makes an economic and social sense for the continent thank you Brian for joining us this particular afternoon talk about the business of football in Africa of course Brian was the football entrepreneur and also the founder and CEO of football foundation for Africa body that is mandated to push and advocate for growth of football in Africa and even beyond our borders thank you for joining us and it's been a pleasure hosting you thank you very much Maxwell of course we've been talking about the business of football in Africa as a continent and way forward regarding growth of the game even ahead of the World Cup set for Qatar and for Kenya Africa getting represented by 5 nations unfortunately Africa getting represented by NAN and Kenya continue to miss in action hopefully one day in the future we will grace the global shop is as well don't go, stay tuned the touch line continues